


Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

by dragon_loves_books



Series: (Un)expected Encounters [1]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bad Spelling & Grammar, F/M, One Shot, Pym Particles or other superheros are not a thing, Scott Lang is a Good Dad, art teacher!Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 16:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_loves_books/pseuds/dragon_loves_books
Summary: There's a woman from the gym who's nicknamed as 'Mean Pretty Lady' by Luis. Scott sees her time to time but he doesn't attempt to actually go or talk to her even if he wants to. Though, he little does know that she isn't just 'the Mean Pretty Lady from the gym'.





	Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

**Author's Note:**

> This story is based on the prompt: 'Person A and B go to the same gym. Person A looks very rough and intimidating. Person B is a single parent and looks small and frail. Then person B finds out person A is the new preschool teacher at their kid(s)'s school and is super kind.' It's from 'otpprompts' in Tumblr.

Scott did not stare. Really. He just happened to check the clock so he wouldn't miss Cassie's departure from school, but now he wasn’t able to tear his eyes away from the wall where the clock was hanging.

Or rather, the woman who was lifting weights under the clock.

Scott wasn't staring. He was simply admiring the woman’s technique, that's all.

“Ooh, the Mean Pretty Lady has a new admirer I see.”

Scott almost tripped over on the treadmill because of the comment Luis made. He immediately tore his gaze away from the still working out woman and turned to him. “No, she doesn't. I was just curious because I haven't seen her here before,” he said, but after a quick glance at the woman again, he whispered. “Why would you yell it like that man?!”

“Sorry,” Luis made a face. “But don’t worry man, like almost half the gym -men and women- has a crush on her too. They’re just too scared of actually approaching her,” Luis said, smirking as he slowly started to run on the treadmill beside Scott.

“Why?” Scott asked and fastened his own too so he could match Luis.

“Well, for one thing she really looks like she’s about to commit murder at any time. And I once saw her t-shirt was covered in red when she was entering the gym, and since then I suspect she’s a secret assassin-”

“Luis,” Scott knew Luis for almost a month now, and if there's one thing he learned about him, it was he tended to miss the actual topic.

“Yeah, sorry man. Anyway, there was this guy -Darren Cross. He moved out before you came so that you wouldn't know him -and you should be glad that you don't because he was a real jerk to almost everybody. Anyway he was coming here too, and even though Mean Pretty Lady was clear that she wasn’t interested, he kept flirting with her and one day she had enough of it- and she did some badass move and used the weight she was lifting and stranded his arm between the weight and the machine. His scream literally echoed in the whole salon.”

“Wow…” Scott got where the ‘Mean’ came from now. “What happened after that? Did he tried to do something back or-”

“Nah, she said if he came near her ever again, she’d break his arm, and this was her last warning. He didn't try to flirt with her ever again.” Luis said.

“Well sounds like he deserved it,” Scott said, trying hard to not look at her direction again. Luis agreed with him and they continued to their exercise until Scott suddenly blurted out. “What’s her name?”

Luis gave Scott a look before answering. “Her name is Hope. I heard the trainer calling her that once but I don't know her full name. -_And_ I suggest we should stay that way.” Luis said pointedly.

“Yeah, you made it clear enough that she doesn’t like to be bothered,” Scott said and continued to his exercise without looking at her again.

* * *

About an hour later, Scott was waiting at the door of Brookemont Elementary School for his daughter to come out. The last bell rang about two minutes ago, and the school garden was filled with students running out of the building. When he saw a familiar flock of brown hair and a puffy yellow coat, a huge smile broke into his face.

“Peanut!” he exclaimed and went on his knee to hug her. She flew into his open arms and after a brief hug, Scott got up. He took her backpack off of her with one hand and took her hand in his with the other. “How was school today, sweetheart?”

“Good!” Cassie started to walk playfully beside her dad. “Mrs.Broadwell started a new subject in math, and we almost finished reading Black Beauty in our book club. She said if we finish it next week, we could start a new book!”

“That’s awesome, Peanut!” Scott said and let her swing their joined hands back and forth. “Are you hungry? We can eat out, or we can go home and cook something awesome ourselves?”

“Let’s go home and cook spaghetti with tomato sauce!”

Scott accepted her idea but he quickly remembered that they were out of tomatoes. He asked a question that he already knew the answer as he took out his car keys from his pocket. “Spaghetti it is. But we need a little shopping if you want tomato sauce. We can buy ice cream too for dessert if you want?”

“YES!” Cassie exclaimed as Scott smiled to himself as he unlocked the car and she climbed into the backseat eagerly.

Scott smile didn’t leave his face as he started the car and they continued to chatter about school and ice cream.

* * *

Scott put two big plates filled with still smoking spaghetti on the table then threw his glove and towel to the counter dramatically. He straightened, gestured the food then spoke with the best Italian accent he could muster, “Here’s your dinner _Signorina_. A huge plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce on top, just the way you love.”

Cassie giggled at her father and dug into her spaghetti immediately. “It’s _delicioso_ daddy,” she said after she was done chewing.

“Well, thank you,” Scott’s eyebrows knitted. “Where did you learn that?” He asked, tapping her nose and making her smile.

“Miss Van Dyne thought us,” Cassie chewed her pasta. “She knows Spanish, and we want her to speak it in her class sometimes, so she started to teach us some words.”

“Nice. What does she actually teach?” Scott asked as he rotated his fork to wrap a mouthful of pasta from his plate.

“Art. You should see her paintings daddy, they’re amazing! Her classroom has a whole wall of paintings and drawings on display, and she hangs our drawings there. She sometimes hangs her drawings too for inspiration. I once tried to replicate her flower drawing, and I didn’t think it was good like hers but she said it was great anyway.” Cassie took a sip from her water. “Though, Nakia’s looked much more like hers than mine.”

Scott listened to her gushing about her teacher and class with a smile. “Well, I never met her, but I agree with her about your drawing. Even if I haven’t seen it, I’m sure it was great.”

Cassie giggled to her spaghetti wrapped fork, and they continued to talk about art, Spain and how amazing spaghetti must’ve tasted in Italy.

* * *

One week later, Scott was at the gym again but without Luis this time. Mean Pretty Lady was working out as well, and they seemed to be the only ones in the gym this friday. Without Luis to distract him -or anybody really- Scott’s eyes were turning toward where she was doing pull-ups from time to time.

Scott thought of approaching her, saying hi and maybe making some small talk, but the problem was she didn’t look like the type to make small talk. He could maybe compliment her fitness, but that also would mean exposing himself on watching her when she wasn’t looking, and he really didn’t want to end up like Cross or worse.

Still thinking about what to say, while staring at the ceiling, Scott didn’t realize his arms were slowing down to lift the weight high enough. He also didn’t realize that she had stopped doing push-ups, and was walking toward him with her water bottle in her hand.

“If you don’t stop daydreaming you’re gonna drop it on your chest.”

“Huh?” Scott almost dropped the weight just like she predicted but managed to balance it at the last moment. He stared at her in bemusement and cleared his throat. “Uhm. Yeah, thanks for the warning.”

Before he could say anything else, she flicked her head to the clock that hanged above his head. “You should make your exit soon if you’re gonna pick up your kid from school.”

“Wha- Really?” Scott put the weight on its stand and looked at the clock properly. She was right; he must’ve lost track of time. He turned to thank her, but she was already walking to the door. He still did it by calling after her, but Hope only nodded with her back still turned to him. She left the salon before he thought he probably should’ve asked how did she know that he had a kid to pick up from school ...

* * *

“Hello, Mr.Brown!” Cassie exclaimed as she stormed into the bookstore, and stopped at the older man’s desk. “We finished Black Beauty at school today, and Mrs.Broadwell said our next book is The Little Prince. Do you have it?”

Mr.Brown smiled down at her from behind his glasses. “Hello to you too, and yes, I have it. I believe it’s in the children section, let me get-”

“No, I can find it myself. Thank you!” the little girl said and ran deeper into the bookshop as Scott entered as well.

“Hello, Mr.Brown,” he walked to the counter while looking for Cassie between the piles of books.

“Hello, Scott. She just went to find her book. Said she could do it by herself.” The old man smiled.

“Yeah figures,” Scott said, not surprised a bit. “So, how are you, Mr.Brown?”

“Good-” he started, but he got cut by the sound of a buzz. The sound that winged insects made. The two men looked down, and while Scott expected to see a bug, he saw it came from a phone on the counter. Another message came and the lighted up the screen. It showed a black cat with big colorful eyes, a message notification was covering its nose.

“Well, I think I’ll be better when its owner realizes she forgot it and come back to get it,” Mr.Brown said, leaning his head to the side so he could see the outside. “Speaking of…”

A woman entered the shop a bit out of breath, and Scott felt his breathing stop for a moment when he recognized who she was.

“Mr.Brown, I-” Mean Pretty Lady started.

“‘_Forgot my phone_.’ Don’t worry. You had left it the counter. I would’ve run after you, but I realized it five minutes after you went,” Mr.Brown held the phone for her to take.

“Thank you,” Hope said as she took her phone, her eyes quickly went to Scott, who hadn’t said anything since she entered the shop.

“Uh… Hi,” he said. She frowned but nodded and said it back this time.

“You know each other?” Mr.Brown asked.

“No, not exactly,” Hope said. “We just seem to run into each other today.”

Scott intended to say something but just as he opened his mouth, Cassie yelled from the back of the shop. “I found it!”

She ran to the counter with the book in her hand, and she let out a gasp when she saw who was standing beside Scott. “Ms.Van Dyne!”

“Cassie?” Hope opened one of her arms when the little girl ran to her and hugged her briefly under Scott’ bewilderment. “I see your book club finished another book.”

“Yes! We’ll start reading The Little Prince. Look,” she showed her the book she was holding, and Hope nodded with a huge smile. To Scott, who never saw her smiling more than a smirk, it was almost mesmerizing to look at.

“Wait, _you’re_ Ms.Van Dyne?” Scott asked the obvious. “Cassie told me so much about you but I never- uh…”

“Let me guess, you never expected her to be the Mean Pretty Lady from the gym?” Hope asked knowingly and added at his horrified face. “Luis gave me that nickname long before you came.”

Scott grimaced. “Sorry on his behalf.”

“Well,” she held out her hand. “Hope Van Dyne. Cassie’s art teacher.”

Scott shook her hand. “Scott Lang. Cassie’s father.”

“I don’t remember seeing you in any of the meetings, Mr.Lang,” Hope said professionally.

_Oh great. Mr.Lang_. “I was living in New York City for the past three years, but I didn’t want to miss out Cassie’s life anymore. So I moved in back here.”

“Mom and Paxton went away for a business trip,” Cassie entered the conversation, standing between them. “I stay with dad while they’re gone. We stay upstairs!”

Hope frowned, and Scott pointed up. “My apartment on top of here.”

“Oh,” Hope smiled down at Cassie. “You must’ve been having fun, huh?”

“Yes! We even have an ant farm! Daddy can even control them; that’s why he’s the Ant-Man!”

Hope made a face at Scott. He shrugged. “You should understand me. I need to entertain her someway. I even started to learn close up magic,” he said, then without actually thinking through, he reached and pulled out a card out of her hair.

Cassie giggled in the background, and Scott thought he probably heard Mr.Brown’s facepalm.

Hope looked at the card with an unimpressed expression as Scott pretended he got frozen. Though, the awkward silence didn’t last long when Hope’s phone buzzed again.

She looked down and immediately took action. “I’m getting late. It was nice to meet you, Mr.Lang,” she said without any emotion and started to walk to the door. “Thank you again, Mr.Brown. See you at monday Cassie!”

“See you too, Ms.Van Dyne!” Cassie yelled after her.

Scott locked his jaw and turned to his daughter and the owner of the shop.

“You really shouldn’t have done that card trick,” Mr.Brown said.

“Yeah…” he sighed.


End file.
